Updates to Congressional Speech Acts on Twitter Matthew

Over the last several years, research on our elected officials’ use of social media as a political
communication platform has greatly increased. While the bulk of social media-related research
focuses on elections, social media-traditional media connections, or the effect of politicians’
social media communications on people’s attitudes and opinions, the present study shows how
members of the U.S. Congress use Twitter to engage in a range of speech-based actions.
Examples of these speech-based actions include narration about one’s day or recent events,
providing information in the form of online or offline information, and positioning for/against
policies and other politicians. In terms of outcomes, this paper provides updates regarding
gender, chamber, and party-based differences. Second, based on the assumption that speech
acts now occur in hybrid form, this paper examines how polarizing political communications are
couched in more subdued formats. Third, a set of recommendations is provided to help
journalists and citizens identify these hybrid speech-based actions before making a potentially
misinformed retweet or comment. In this way, the function of Twitter use by elected officials is
further explained and our understanding of Twitter’s role in U.S. political communication is
further deepened.